How difficult a thing it seems, to
believe spiritual things; that is to say
things belonging or pertaining to
spiritual beings or conditions.
Our
experiences as menearthly beingsare so constant that our ideas are
apt to be entirely from that standpoint,
while only those who are separated
from the earth by their hopes
and ambitions, and who are continuously
making spiritual things their
study, are able at all to appreciate
them and to rightly divide truth and
discriminate between earthly and
spiritual things.

How few there are who know that
there is a natural (or human) body
and there is a spiritual body; their
only idea of organization is drawn
from their daily experiences; they
never saw any person whose body
was not flesh and bones and blood
and therefore they do not believe
that there could be a being differently
constructed.
This is human reason
unguided by the Spirit and consequently
it frequently finds itself in
direct conflict with the "Sword of
the Spiritthe word of God."(Eph. 6:17.)
For instance, they can tell
you they say, just exactly what they
will be like in the futurethat is just
like what they now are except free
from present weaknesses and ailments;
and they know too just what
Jesus will be like; they say he will
be just as he was when crucified, the
same wounds in hands, feet, brow,
etc., for they insist that it is "Thissame Jesus," who shall come and
reign.
Now, we do not blame those
who cannot see spiritual things for
looking at and imagining everything
on the earthly plane, for we know (The Spirit declares it1 Cor. 2:14.)
"The natural (human) man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God(they are foolishness unto him,) neither can he know them because they
are spiritually discerned."
But to
those who have a spiritual eye to see and a spiritual ear to hear we would
say: Paul teaches such that there
will be a complete change from natural
(human) to spiritual conditions
on the part of that "little flock" to
whom it is the Father's good pleasure
to give the kingdom which "fleshand blood cannot inherit."(1 Cor. 15:50.)
So great a change we repeat,
that "it doth not yet appear what we shall be."
The spirit-begotten
Apostle knew of the human
nature and human body, and if we
were to be changed to the perfection
of humanity he well knew how to so
express it, but knowing all this he
positively asserts that after the change it will be a spiritual and not a natural
body, and that "it doth not yet appear what" a spiritual body is or
what may be all of its powersbut "we
shall be like Him."
It follows then
that Jesus will be different from what he was also, so different that Paul intimates
that though he (and he only1 Cor. 15:8) had seen him after his change he could not describe him,
and we could not understand what
our change will be, or what his was,
until changed and made "like unto
Christ's glorious body."

"Who says that the body with
nail prints in the hands and feet was
Christ's glorious body?
Certainly
there is no one who has his senses
exercised in spiritual things who cannot see that "the body of flesh""the likeness of men""the form
of a servant" was not His glorious
body, but the one taken in order that
"He...might taste death for every
man."

If then, Jesus took a human nature
and form that "as by man came
death, by man also might come the
resurrection of the dead," (1 Cor. 15:21)
and if we are told that he has
now another nature and spiritual
form, shall we not recognize twofirst the natural (human) afterward
the spiritual?
It was the man (anointed
Jesus) who died for our sins;
but he is a man no longer; he is now
a spiritual being.
He as a man was
"obedient unto death even the death
of the cross.
Wherefore, God also
hath highly exalted him" (Phil. 2:9)
and his is no longer the human nature
and form, but the Divine. He is now a "glorious body"the express
image of the Father's personof
the invisible God," "whom no man
hath seen nor can see."
Paul as one born (resurrected) before the
time was granted a glimpse of the
glorified Jesus, which destroyed his
natural sight.(1 Cor. 15:8.)
Can
we doubt as to the time when Jesus
received these forms?
Was not
the natural born of a woman, and
after thirty years of growth in wisdom,
stature, etc., did not the human reach
its perfection?
Did he not immediately
(when thirty years of age) consecrate
that human nature a sacrifice
for the world?
Was it not accepted
of God, and did not the Father testify
to the acceptance of that sacrifice
by anointing and filling the man
with His Spirit?
Was not that
anointing the begetting of the man
Jesus to the Divine spiritual nature?
Were not the three and one-half
years of his ministry, years of
the crucifying of the flesh or (perfect)
human will of Jesus?
Did he not
finish the sacrifice at the cross?
Was
he not raised from the dead the third
day?
Was not that called his birth"The first -bornfrom the dead""First- born among many brethren,"
etc.?
Was that said to be a birth of
the flesh or of the Spirit?
If then He
is said to have been born of the
Spirit, how say some among you that
he was still fleshhumandoes not
the Word record that "That which is
born of the flesh is flesh, and that
which is born of the Spirit is Spirit"?John 3:6.
Was he not sown a natural
body""raised a spiritual
body"?

If then Jesus is and has been since
his resurrection a spiritual body,
why should we look for him to be a
fleshly body at his second coming?
Do you know of any place in holy
writ where it says he will be
changed so as to become again a
human, earthly, fleshly body?
Is it
not foolish for those who have been
somewhat enlightened by the Word
of God to expect that Jesus will come
in the fleshto be seen of the earthly eye?

Have any ever seen spiritual beingsGod, or Angels, or Devilswith the human eye (except as a miracle
has occurred which specially revealed
them as recorded in Scriptures)?
Did any astronomer sweeping
the sky by day or by night with
powerful telescope ever see those
(angels) whom Paul declares are
ministering spirits sent forth to minister
for those who shall be heirs of
salvation"or did they ever see Him
who is called "the Devil"the
"Prince of this world""the Prince
of the powers of the air?"
Who
hath seen such spiritual beings by
human eyes without a miracle?
If
there be none why should any look
for the Lord who at his resurrection
became "a life-giving Spirit" to be
thus visible to mortals?

But does some one objectDid not
the Angels say, "This same Jesus
shall come?
Yes, we answer as frequently
before; yes, it will be so;
but was it the Jesus born of Mary, or
the Jesus born of the Spirit, a spiritual
body, a quickening spirit, of which
the Angel spoke?
You answer that
it was he who was raised by the power
of the Father to the perfection of
spiritual being; and we answer yes, this same (spiritual) Jesus shall so
come in like manner as he went awayunknown to the world who were
eating, drinking, planting, and building
and knew not.

So we believe he has come again,
not a man but a Spirit, not a man's
form of fleshbut a Spirit's forma spiritual body. Now none can see him present but those who have
spiritual eye-sight and are looking.
Some who are thus looking can now
see himthe eyes of their understanding
being enlightened by the light
shining from the more sure word of
prophecy: Such walk by faith and
not by sight, and may well endure
"as seeing him that is invisible" to
humanity.

Our missionthose who see the present oneis to declare Him to the
nominal churchthe ripe wheat of
which, we expect will hear and
recognize, while others will in this
respect be blind.
Our position is
much like that of John the Baptist at
the first advent of Jesus when he
came in the flesh to "Israel after the
flesh."
John introduced himannounced
him as the "Lamb of God"
who would take away the sin of the
world.
So we announce him now to
the Spiritual Israel as the Lord of
life and King of Glory.

When addressed by the leading
men of the fleshly house as to his
business and his right to preach outside
the pale of the Jewish church, he
declares it to be his special work to
bear witness to the light and the
truth of the presence of Jesus the
Lord's anointed.
So too when we
are asked for our reasons, they are
these: that the King has come and
is calling for the joint-heirs and they
must needs be made aware of his
presence.
Now as then it is true,
that "There standeth one among you
whom you know not."
Behold, see,
but "look not at the things that are
seen but at the things that are not
seen; for the things that are seen
(by the natural eye) are temporal, but
the things which are not seen are
eternal."(2 Cor. 4:18.)

Though you cannot see the "reaper"
you can see his work going on around you in the nominal churchthe wheat and the taresthe real
and the imitation must be and now
are being separated, that in due time
the wheat may "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father"which flesh and blood cannot inherit.

This recognition of the Lord's presence we understand to be the
sanctifying and essential truth necessary
to the perfecting of the saints
now living, and the ability to perceive
it, the test of spiritual sight now, even as at the first advent: Then,
the test was not whether the Jewish
church believed the Prophetsthat
the Messiah should come sometime,
nor whether they believed that that
coming would be soon, for we read
that "All men were in expectation"
of His coming; but the test to them
was, would they believe in His presence,
in a way they had not expected
Him to come.
So now the test is
similarnot who believes Jesus is comingbut who can see Him to be present; and only those possessed of
spiritual sight can see Him.
"There
standeth one among you (in your
midst) whom you know not."